In this issue, we examine rivers from several angles: as wildlife corridors, as water supplies, and as waterways that sustain cultures as well as fish. Our feature takes us down the Upper Green River, trying to track a wolf pack; Colorado officially welcomes the predators, but wolves coming from Wyoming struggle to find refuge. We shine a spotlight on the Klamath River Basin, where the Klamath Tribes struggle to save endangered c’waam and koptu. The bonds between the river and the Yurok people cannot be broken, though some wonder whether salmon will survive until the dams come down. Meanwhile, the river the whole Southwest depends on — the Colorado — is rapidly disappearing. In other news, the Supreme Court makes voting harder for Indigenous people. We review Douglas Chadwick’s Four Fifths a Grizzly and Nawaaz Ahmed’s debut novel, Radiant Fugitives. And a young writer working for the Montana Conservation Corps learns that you don’t need to fall in love with a landscape in order to take good care of it.
The new animal voyeurism
Captured on film but still losing habitat.
Why have gray wolves failed to gain a foothold in Colorado?
The Green River Corridor, a pathway from Wyoming to Colorado, highlights the political and physical barriers wolves face.
Corporate agricultural
Thank you for the August article about the mega-dairy coming to Arizona and its impact on our water supply. This installation is representative of the larger problem of corporate agricultural interests exporting our resources. The political powers are reluctant to do anything about it because the industry promises jobs and revenues. It can’t go on…
“Integrity is about doing the right thing”
“Sucked Dry” provides an important and powerful look at the mega-dairy industry. The repeated disregard by Riverview LLP for people, water and climate is telling. The company is destroying water supplies across the states it operates in, leaving thousands of people with dry wells. The carbon and methane emissions from these mega-dairies is, arguably, immoral,…
Pounding on “mega corporations”
HCN’s writers frequently pound on “mega corporations,” perhaps because its audience, over time, has self-selected to people who like that sort of thing. The concerns about water use are legitimate, but corporate farms do not emit, overall, more pollution than the aggregate of family farms. They may produce more waste in fewer locations, but smaller farms,…
Reassessing the dams
Sadly, removal of Washington’s Gorge Dam will not slow, let alone reverse, the declining native salmon populations that once thrived in the magnificent 160-plus-mile Skagit-Cascade-Sauk-Suiattle Wild and Scenic River System (“Reassessing the dams,” August 2021). It’s true that “the licensing process has triggered different conversations on the Skagit’s future.” Unfortunately, the author focused on a tiny,…
Sucked Dry
Thank you to Debbie Weingarten and Tony Davis for their really excellent article, “Sucked Dry” (August 2021), about Riverview LLP’s mega-dairy expansion into southeast Arizona. It’s one of the best pieces of investigative journalism I have read in High Country News in some time. The article provides a clear example of several key issues the…
Superb reporting
Tony Davis and Debbie Weingarten’s article, “Sucked Dry,” is superb reporting. I can’t thank you enough for such a comprehensive look at this issue, heartbreaking as it is. Stevan BosanacPetaluma, California This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Superb reporting.
The Skagit River reconsidered
Great pair of articles about the Skagit River; fascinating and something I’m deeply interested in across the West, but especially as a Seattle resident (August 2021). I think Washington has an interesting opportunity to lead the way and become a model for Western dam removal. One thing I was left curious about was the cascading…
Welcoming our newest interns and fellows
Thanks to generous readers, we host our largest cohort ever.
Family, culture, politics and heartbreak in the modern West
Nawaaz Ahmed’s debut novel ponders endings from beginnings.
A new Conservation Corps for the climate
What it means to contribute to the future of a place.
Record temps; hot dam; roadkill for dinner
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
The familial bond between the Klamath River and the Yurok people
How a tribal community’s health is intimately connected to the health of the river.
The incredible shrinking Colorado River
Climate change and rising demand are sucking the life out of the Southwest’s water supply.
Avocados, ants, aardvarks and us
In his new book, Douglas Chadwick shows how the interconnectedness of all life is the key to inspiring change.
The effort to save Upper Klamath Lake’s endangered fish before they disappear
Another dry year pushes tribal nations, federal agencies and irrigators to find long-lasting solutions.
Will Klamath salmon outlast the dam removal process?
Their future comes down to a race between paperwork and a fish disease.
Tree DNA thwarts black market lumber
How the genetic code of flora helped catch timber thieves.
Supreme Court ruling fails to protect Indigenous voters
In Brnovich v. DNC, the court has made it harder for people of color — especially Indigenous populations — to vote.